I am looking for examples of web sites that have a very spartan and minimal interface - mostly text and very few graphics or even styling - yet the user experience is good enough that users are not put off.

The most obvious examples that spring to mind are (early) google, craigslist, reddit and indeed.com . Can you suggest other sites that have a basic design?

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15 Answers
15

Wikipedia is the one that immediately springs to mind as having a visually very basic design that does not put people off. Despite this, it actually has a lengthy Manual of Style (MoS) and indeed Wikipedia is among the ten most visited websites worldwide.

The MoS presents Wikipedia's house style, to help editors produce
articles with consistent, clear, and precise language, layout, and
formatting. The goal is to make the encyclopedia easier and more
intuitive to use. Consistency in language, style, and formatting
promotes clarity and cohesion; this is especially important within an
article.

As soon as you get past the first page, you never have to relearn how to interpret the content on another page

(Yes there's graphics - sometimes - if the article provides it, but that's not part of the design - that's part of the content)

It can still be a useful answer if you provide some background on Craigslist and why it's such an interesting example.
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Patrick McElhaneyNov 11 '11 at 13:48

While craigslist has little style applied to it, it's a terribly busy and complicated system of navigation. I also wouldn't call it good UX, it's functional but not...pleasant.
–
Ben Brocka♦Nov 11 '11 at 19:57

It has virtually no 'design' or cruft on the UI - it's all about the images. Even the links are left default blue. It's social functionality is kept to the absolute minimum to be a functioning social network too.

Wikipedia has a good minimalist presentation within articles (though their front page is surprisingly cluttered).

The Amazon Redesign is surprisingly minimalist for a site that had previously been rather amazingly cluttered.

Many (good) mobile sites have very minimalist design as well; if you note, the release of Amazon's Tablet is the impetus for the above redesign to optimize for tablets. I think minimalist design is getting a good kickstart as people start to realize that mobile requires a minimalist presentation.

http://kernel.org/ is the homepage of the Linux kernel. It doesn't have got any pictures on it (except flags and a few pics on the bottom of the page, but none of them are significant), just a link to the FAQ, downloading/git links in a clear table, and some news.

http://programmedlessons.org/java5/index.html is a great site for minimalist design that is also incredibly usable. It's certainly not flashy but it is very well laid out to provide great examples and reinforce important concepts as someone walks through the lessons.

It seems a bit too segmented as one clicks through the lessons when not actually learning the material but it is very nicely divided for someone who is learning the material. It is in small enough chunks to be manageable but not so small that the big picture is lost.